George Gombossy: January 2008 Archives

One year ago, I debuted a new column in The Courant, one that I hoped would spark a dialogue with the readers.

The point was to hear from you. To hear of your complaints against businesses and government. To try to solve - or at least respond to - your problems and concerns and help all of us navigate the complexities of today's economy that consumers face daily. I can say, and I think my editors would agree, that the column has more than met my expectations.

More than 2,000 of you have sent e-mails and letters, raising critical questions and sending valid complaints of abusive or nonexistent customer service. You were not willing to accept "no" from big business or government.

The vast majority of the complaints I received were well documented and accurate. You were willing to let your names be used so that your concerns would be more credible to our readers. I was able to persuade most of you to file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with state agencies so others could learn, and perhaps benefit, from your headaches.

Together we were able to tackle several major issues and scores of smaller ones.

I think our biggest accomplishment was shedding light on Connecticut Light & Power Co.'s abysmal customer service, which has resulted in dramatic changes by the company. Hopefully, even more changes will come about, and with your vigilance we will make sure these changes become permanent.

I could not have accomplished that by myself. It was complaints from readers that led me to raise questions about CL&P.

As we celebrate the first anniversary of the Watchdog column, we would like to honor those readers who have had tipped us off to the biggest issues.

While many deserve to be honored, I have selected 12 people whose complaints and questions had the most impact. They will be honored Tuesday night at The Courant. I hope this will become an annual tradition.

Of the 12, seven were selected because of the issues they raised in the CL&P investigation.

Anthony Calibey of West Hartford and Karl Steinhart of Hartford were the first to send me letters raising the possibility that CL&P's meters - despite the company's claims - were fallible.

In investigating their claims that their meters were causing overcharging by the company, I found that their stories were credible. When I wrote about them last June, I said in the column that despite claims by CL&P officials and state public utility regulators that only one or two of the 1.2 million meters were faulty, I suspected that there were many more.

More than a dozen CL&P customers responded after the first column raising their own concerns, including Denis Levesque, a Manchester machine shop owner, who was billed an astounding $57,000 in less than a year.

Others had similar stories. Despite a state law requiring CL&P to test their meters, the company refused, claiming that the customers' high bills were caused either by someone stealing their electricity or that they were using more than they thought.

By this time, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had heard enough and began his own investigation into CL&P. He and leaders of the General Assembly's energy and technology committee successfully pressured state public utility regulators to investigate CL&P's customer service practices.

Blumenthal, state Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell and state Better Business Bureau President Paulette N. Hotton are planning to attend Tuesday's ceremony.

Further evidence of CL&P meter problems came from Sybil Nassau of Westbrook who took it on herself to review the electricity bills she received working at an elderly housing project funded by the government. She discovered that one meter had to be erratic because of the unusually high numbers it sometimes recorded.

Taras and Marli Rudko of Colchester spent months gathering evidence that major fluctuations in the electricity CL&P provided their neighborhood were destroying electrical appliances. Their efforts forced CL&P to upgrade the neighborhood's electricity distribution system.

And because of Virginia S. Glowacki of Granby, we learned that CL&P needlessly sued hundreds of seriously ill customers whose power they could not terminate legally for lack of payment. Glowacki's story so embarrassed CL&P President Raymond Necci that he ordered the company to freeze all pending lawsuits and to stop filing new ones while the company figures out how to deal with the issue.

Among the first batch of e-mails I received when I launched the column was from Eric Hammer, an East Hartford schoolteacher.

Hammer's tip helped me prove that Best Buy had created a secret website that was used by some of its employees around the country and in Canada to cheat customers out of cheaper prices it was advertising on its similar public website.

As a result of the outcry, Best Buy was forced to change its practices and is now defending itself against a civil lawsuit brought by Blumenthal.

Stephanie Chernoff of Simsbury provided me with the evidence to persuade police in Fairfield to stop issuing tickets to motor vehicle operators whom they could not positively identify.

Chernoff received a citation for illegally talking on the phone while driving in Fairfield. She was able to establish that neither she nor her car were within 100 miles of Fairfield.

U.S. Army Spec. Sheri Watson Martinez, who was serving in Iraq, alerted us to the fact that some giant finance companies were failing to honor federal laws enacted to protect members of the armed forces who are on active duty.

Rusty Lanzit of Chaplin got tired of watching his son and his college friends being financially abused by the managers of the College Pro painting company. Blumenthal is investigating the firm's marketing practices.

And Hartford attorney Jeffrey Nobel has come to the aid of people whose cars may have been improperly towed and impounded on the instructions of Hartford police. As a result of complaints to me, Nobel has two pending lawsuits in federal court accusing the Hartford police of failing to follow department policies as well as state laws.

Two other lawyers also gave many hours of their time to deserving victims of government abuse.

Attorney Mike Agranoff of Ellington spent dozens of hours without charge to help a Southington woman navigate the bureaucracy at the state Department of Mental Retardation. The woman has a 23-year-old son who is legally blind and has brain deformities. She came to me for help on transportation and other issues and Agranoff came to her rescue.

Hartford attorney Kyle Macci, who is also a full-time New Britain police officer, also helped several readers, including Chernoff and two people with landlord issues without charging a fee.

The people being honored Tuesday and the hundreds of others who have written to me have all contributed to making our lives better. They deserve a round of applause.

With the help of hundreds of readers we have won many victories for consumers in Connecticut and sometimes nationally over the past 20 months through the Watchdog columns. Through the blog I will be able to post your reaction to columns, get advice from you ... read more